The Pioneer 30.04.2013
All urban households to get piped water in 10 yrs
Ahead of municipal elections in September, the State Government on Monday decided to formulate a new drinking water policy soon with a target to cover all households in the urban areas with safe drinking water through meter connectivity in next 10 years.
The draft strategy paper relating to the Odisha State Urban Area Drinking Water Supply policy is in an advance stage of finalisation and would be put up in the next Cabinet meeting in May next for clearance, said Urban Development Minister Debi Prasad Mishra after a high level review meeting on urban water supply scheme chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat on Monday.
Mishra said that piped water connectivity will be provided to all households in103 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in 50 per cent of the partially and uncovered areas by end of the 12th five year plan period.
So far, piped water supply connectivity has been ensured to around 2, 88, 987 households in the ULBs, he said.
Of the total 1,872 wards in the 103 ULBs, 1,153 wards are fully covered, 564 wards are partially covered and 155 wards are not covered with piped water supply at present. The State Government is implementing a total of 509 schemes for improvement and augmentation of water supply to cater to the need in 103 ULBs with a total project cost of Rs 716.22 crore. Stating that the daily per head requirement of drinking water is 135 liter as per the national yardstick, he said in Odisha the per capita availability of drinking water in 11 ULBs is above the national standard while in 13 other bodies, the availability of drinking water is around 100 to 135 liter per head. While the per head water availability is at rate of 70 to 100 liter per day, the residents of rest 49 ULBs are getting drinking water below 70 liters per head, he informed.
The Urban Development Minister said that the proposed policy envisages 100 per cent coverage of safe drinking water through piped water scheme to all the households in ULBs with metered connectivity in next ten years. The policy would ensure regular required water supply with exact billing and check usage of excess water as well as regulate wastage of drinking water. The consumers would have to pay the water bills every month for their usage like electricity, he said.
Mishra said that during the current financial year, an estimated Rs 25.20 crore was provided for new piped water supply project in 103 ULBs. Besides, for the ongoing piped water supply projects, an estimated Rs 74.30 crore has been provided in this year’s budget, he told.
The Chief Minister during the review asked the authorities of the Urban Development department to ensure drinking water connectivity to all the schools and Anganwadi centres in the urban areas.
Notably, during the current financial year, the State Government provided Rs 5.15 crore for drinking water connectivity to the schools and Anganwadi centres in the ULBs. An estimated Rs 754.23 crore would be spent for implementing integrated sewerage project in Bhubaneswar, which would be divided into six sewerage districts for treatment of sewerage.
The Chief Minister directed the Urban Development department to set up 49 community toilets in the State capital region to make the city open defecation free. Mishra also said that in order to meet the drinking water need, it was decided to set up as many as 4,000 new tube wells in distress areas by June next.
